Koulibaly

[CanaryOne 0]

[quote user="Essjayess"]Newsnow are reporting that several french sources say City bid a staggering 14.5 mill pounds for Nkoulou the Marseille CB last week which was rejected. Of course that does not mean its true, but if it was, then it at least shows City are prepared to hand over serious money if they believe it necessary.[/quote]Or you could say they keep bidding big money for players they know wont come or that their clubs wont sell them , it looks good to teir own supporters.

[Essjayess 307]

Canary One its the last few days of the transfer window, you seriously think Norwich City can waste time saying "ok right lets bid for this or that player, put a huge bid in for him but not enough to actually buy him, to keep our supporters thinking we are trying"?. From all accounts City really tried hard to get Nkoulou...Alex even flew out there. And Koulibaly to im sure they hard a good go at  getting..both CBs are top notch and probably just out of our budget sadly.Unless im reading wrong what you are trying to say. I do agree any amounts we hear from so called sources can be pie in the sky, such as the 14 mill for Afobe from a Mirror source when Jackett stated no figure had ever been discussed by any Wolves person.

[DEB (never forgotten) 0]

Napoli have agreed a deal for Chelsea defender Nathaniel Chalobah, due to arrive in Italy for medical tomorrow! 

[Mervmeister 18]

He is a midfielder who has played a small handful of games at centre back to cover. But yeah, Very much a midfielder.

[Grant Holts Moustache 105]

Chalobah is a defensive midfielder I believe.

[The Raver 0]

Most likely a replacement for De Guzman.

[Essjayess 307]

Ya forget trying to think we could still get Koulibaly, Napoli did try hard to get in a CB but failed so KK will stay with them. It is far to late in any case, the deadline closes at 6pm tomorrow. I think in the last 2 or 3 weeks City probably tried their utmost to get in KK or the guy at Marseille but they just failed through a number of circumstances and time has beaten them. Cannot imagine how much effort was put in, imagine much more than we ever know.Times nearly up and if we pull a rabbit out of the hat think its going to be a modest rabbit on the lines of a Collins, or maybe the Danish guy. Or maybe  we will have to go with Russ and Seb all season with Wisdom as cover? <.>

[kick it off 1,948]

[quote user="Essjayess"]Ya forget trying to think we could still get Koulibaly, Napoli did try hard to get in a CB but failed so KK will stay with them. It is far to late in any case, the deadline closes at 6pm tomorrow. I think in the last 2 or 3 weeks City probably tried their utmost to get in KK or the guy at Marseille but they just failed through a number of circumstances and time has beaten them. Cannot imagine how much effort was put in, imagine much more than we ever know.Times nearly up and if we pull a rabbit out of the hat think its going to be a modest rabbit on the lines of a Collins, or maybe the Danish guy. Or maybe  we will have to go with Russ and Seb all season with Wisdom as cover? <.>[/quote]

Napoli still have time to get a CB in. How many times have we seen it happen here on deadline day with deals being done right up until the window "slams shut".

I agree, looking more likely we will sign someone else, but I sincerely hope it''s better than Collins. The Danish guy is a definite possibility.

[Crafty Canary 495]

An agent on SSN this morning described Collins as just the sort of CB any Premiership club worried about relegation and looking to boost their defence should sign. Collins is not one of his clients.

[kick it off 1,948]

Marseille just signed a defender. N''Koulou could be on the move (although bigger clubs than us are rumoured to want him now)

[DEB (never forgotten) 0]

In conclusion, the likelihood is that a huge amount of time and resource has ultimately been wasted in a pursuit of unrealistic transfer targets. This window presented us with an opportunity to enhance the quality in our squad so as to maximise our survival chances, and (in turn) guarantee a share of the substantial increase in premier league finance. We appear to have got our recruitment strategy completely wrong. History will ultimately confirm how damaging (or otherwise) our failings in this transfer window have been.

[chicken 0]

I would hope that it would be history based on facts then DEB, not conjecture.

Things are never what they seem when it comes to footy. How do you know if something is unrealistic if you don''t try?

For all you know, behind the scenes, things like fees and contracts have been agreed only for another team to come in with late interest.

[Cerberus 0]

An update - fills in some of the gaps in what we already know.http://www.football-italia.net/73046/koulibaly-talks-norwich

[Badger 2,405]

Thank you Cerberus. It does seem to indicate that the board were very ambitious with their targets.

[Essjayess 307]

CB is such an important place to fill, and seems the transfer window had a heap of clubs wanting CBs. I said at the time that City were seemingly really trying hard to push the boat out and quite willing to spend big to get in a quality CB. The likes of Koulibaly and Nkoulou were always going to so difficult to capture, and also City seemed to leave it late in the window..well..we going with weve got till at least January, maybe right thru till end of season so..that was the only real disapointment for me, all else went good, and 5 games passed already..enjoying life back in the Prem.

[HampsteadCanary 0]

I think if we''re still around the same position by January (wishful thinking perhaps, but not impossible) then we may have a better chance of securing someone of that calibre. The performance levels of our current players may allow the club to buy their replacements, but then that''s football!

[chicken 0]

[quote user="Essjayess"]CB is such an important place to fill, and seems the transfer window had a heap of clubs wanting CBs. I said at the time that City were seemingly really trying hard to push the boat out and quite willing to spend big to get in a quality CB. The likes of Koulibaly and Nkoulou were always going to so difficult to capture, and also City seemed to leave it late in the window..well..we going with weve got till at least January, maybe right thru till end of season so..that was the only real disapointment for me, all else went good, and 5 games passed already..enjoying life back in the Prem.[/quote]

Why do people keep saying that we left it until the last minute?!! All of the evidence suggests that we didn''t.

Take Mbokani for example - we now know that it was us he was jetting off to when he posted that picture way back at the beginning of the summer.

In Koulibaly''s case we at least now know the beginning of the negotiations and the end. The initial interest was in a loan and the last offer that was rejected is rumoured to be £14ish million. That doesn''t happen overnight either. Nor does a clubs position go from selling to keeping quickly either. So his club failed to find a replacement for him.

[Indy 3,283]

This would have been the signing that everyone would have then said, that was a sound transfer window.

Looking back the poor timing of the Rothrhamgate scandal, the last minute sale of Johnson and only getting in two loan signings made it appear that we had a poor transfer window.

Still think we need this type of signing in January to strengthen our challenge to stay in this league, but well impressed with our midfield, they have been superb as have the entire squad thus far.

[Essjayess 307]

I did not say City left it until the last minute, just that they left it late., like in the last 2 or 3 weeks of a 3 or 4 month transfer window. After Wembley we first  signed Dorrans quickly,  then a while after him  we got Yousef. Then that long long saga with Robbie Brady...how many weeks  did that encompass?. Of course none of us know in truth thru the whole period what activity if any City were up to regarding Defensive cover, but for fact Alex flew to Marseille to give a look over on Nkoulou very late in the window. Koulibalys name had been mentioned  in gossip halfway thru the window, but was not until the last week to 10 days of the window that we heard that City were then trying their best to get that guy.Many names such as Collins at West Ham were just gossip, others like that Danish CB only got a mention in the very last few days.

[unique 434]

Possibly dodged a bullet with this one - not sure his head would have been out of his backside long enough to be able to produce any meaningful defensive headers..........

.....or maybe it''s just his agent that is a little aggrieved at missing out on a useful pay-day.........

[It's Character Forming 1,160]

It looks to me like we were going for good targets but at CB we didn''t have a plan B if we didn''t land any of them. The "leaving it late" impression has come from the mention of various offers being rejected at the last minute and I think it was Palace who said they didn''t take the offer for Gayle seriously because it was broached so late on the final day (yes I know he''s not a CB, but it has given the impression of leaving it too late).

Obviously we don''t know what went on behind the scenes, we may have had a decent selection of plan B CB targets lined up who didn''t work out, but based on what we''ve heard, it does seem to me this area was neglected.

Or it may just be that AN is pretty comfortable with what we''ve got and was only interested in players who''d be a substantial upgrade like this guy (presumably). In which case we''ll see how that decision pans out over the rest of the season. It would be a big worry if we''re desperate to strengthen this area come Christmas, that''ll certainly blow the budget !

[Tetteys Jig 830]

So a recent quote from him states Napoli turned 15m euros (£11m approx) down from us for him. Hopefully we''ve found a defender of equal ability for that price! Shows the level of money we have available though.

Saying that, I hope we don''t waste it on overpaying for someone like Tom Lees. Whilst he''d be an alright signing, we''ve no need to panic and pay that much over the odds on a gamble like that. £11 on a CB should be reserved for someone obviously better than what we have.

[MrMcGoo 0]

On BT sport europe atm

[93vintage 16]

Napoli are the best team in Italy at the moment and play an exquisite

passing game, something I noticed much earlier in the season. It could be worth trying to get one or two fringe players from some of the better Italian clubs like them and Fiorentina.But I''m not sure that spending £11m is wise, there must be some decent but less heralded reserves available for a bit less who are easier to prise away. That said, Koulibaly had a good game tonight.

[Essjayess 307]

Oh please please no...no..we have wasted enough time fapping around Italy.

[Herman 9,713]

A re-hash of a story from the summer. Nothing to see here.

[Move Klose 303]

I think we were pretty close to doing this one last summer for around £10m or something. Now Chelsea have made a bid for him of £38m. What couldve been 😉

[Branston Pickle 3,635]

I saw his name mentioned the other day and thought much the same, we were clearly identifying some good players last summer, just unable to pull it off

[Bethnal Yellow and Green 1,557]

Don''t think Norwich were ever that close really. Koulibaly mentioned last season that Norwich made a big offer for him, but Napoli turned it down and said he wasn''t for sale.

Norwich moved onto other targets pretty much straight away. Koulibaly never said if he would entertain the move himself, I suspect he probably wouldn''t have.

[The ghost of Michael Theoklitos 0]

We''ve had a few of these in the last few years. Toby Alderweireld is another one that comes to mind.Like BY&G though, not sure if we were really ever "linked" in anything other than paper talk.